Apps That Help You Fight Disease

by Rebecca Beckett // May 03, 2018 12:00 pm

I had never heard of companies using apps to help fight disease, but it turns out they are.

DreamLab App

It’s really complicated and I’m not a math person, but basically when you use this app it helps Vodafone Foundation and Imperial College use some of your phone’s power to allow them to break down huge calculations into something manageable bits of data. What? They use your phone while it is plugged in and you are sleeping to help perform complex calculations. They say that “Using a standard eight-core computer running 24-hours a day it would take about 300 years to process the datasets.” However, get the population with 100,000 smartphones involved with and you can do the same calculations in just 3 months. More information.

HTC’s Power to Give Program

By donating your processing power while you sleep you contribute to human needs in medicine, science and the environment. More information.

Sea Hero Quest

This game developed by the University of East Anglia is helping Alzeheimer’s research. Professor of applied dementia research at the University of East Anglia, Michael Hornberger said to the BBC: “The amount of data that has already been generated by people playing Sea Hero Quest all around the world is phenomenal and is enabling us to reveal a vital global benchmark of how people, of all ages and from all over the use spatial navigation.” Sea Hero Quest is a heartwarming game about a young boy helping his father tackle his increasing memory loss. More information.

Play to Cure: Genes in Space

The Genes in Space game was developed by the Cancer Research UK to analyze genetic data. Ultimately this game and the data will help scientists spot patterns in thousands of tumors. More information.

It’s fascinating that something as simple as our smartphones can help scientists around the world. Do note that any of the apps you use may use up your data so you’ll want to make sure you are always plugged in and connected to wifi if you decide to try any out. Do you know of any other such apps or games used for research? Tell us about them!